T. DWIGHT THACHER, Editor and Proprietor.

Tuesday, August 23, 1864.

     The steamers Evening Star and Kate Kinney came up Sunday, both well loaded.  The packet came down Sunday evening with a fair load.  She was later than usual, having been delayed by the heavy fog in the morning.  Among the passengers were a few female secesh, under military escort.  The Kate Kinney went down yesterday, lightly loaded.

     We noticed in our walk through the market yesterday morning a fair display of vegetables and melons, but a scant show of other fruits.  These cold mornings create quite a demand for fish, which is generally scarce.

     Bill Jackson entered the town of Frankfort in Saline county, Mo., six miles above Cambridge, at mid-day, burned twenty houses, and killed several citizens.  The act is said to have been in retaliation for the death of the guerrilla leader, Nick Durrett, who was shot at Arrow Rock.  Jackson swore h e would kill ten Union men to avenge the death of his friend Durrett, and commenced the execution of his oath by this attack upon the village of Frankfort, whose inhabitants were nearly all Germans.  Bill Jackson is the son of ex-Governor Jackson of this state.

     EXCURSION TO INDEPENDENCE -- Sunday was a delightful day, with breeze and sunshine admirably mingled.  A large number of our citizens availed themselves of a free ride behind our first iron horse.  At nine o'clock the first train started -- five cars loaded uncomfortably full, but he ride was short.  The next train started later but was readily crowded.  Arriving at Independence, the services were opened by an eloquent sermon from Father Hammon, of Lexington, Mo.  Then followed the laying of the corner stone, which was conducted with all the ceremony and impressiveness of the Catholic Church.  Father Donnelly, the revered pastor of the Catholic Church in this city, and Father Kennedy, of Independence, and Father Hammon, were the officiating clergymen.  After the stone was laid, Father Donnelly preached a most practical discourse to the congregation, warm with Christian fervor and faith.  In the course of his sermon, he referred to the time, twenty years ago, when he came to Independence a young priest, without purse or scrip, his little flock almost in the same condition, but that he had lived to see the day when he could say he had paid out from the contributions of the Church, over sixty thousand dollars to the mechanics and laborers of the county for building churches and schools, and now in addition the present structure had begun.  His reminiscences of early days were most interesting.  Under the stone a sealed bottle was deposited containing the latest issues of St. Louis and Kansas City papers, the name of the president of the United States and the Governor of Missouri, the clergy, etc., together with current coins of the time.  The train returned early in the afternoon.